60 SEVENTEENTH REPORT. 



a business without policies might be compared to a man without a 

 purpose iu life. Just as some of the business policies may be bad 

 and contemptible, so the union policies may be bad and contemptible 

 and vice versa. Let us now examine the carpenters' policies from 

 this point of view. These policies are the control of the labor 

 supply; of machinery, tools, and materials; of the output; and of 

 work sharing. 



The first of these, the control of the labor supply, is accomplished 

 through the apprenticeship rules and the examination for entrance 

 into the union. The presence in the city of more journeymen than 

 can be employed is a menace to the union. It is also uneconomical 

 for society to train men for the carpentry and then have no work 

 for them. To this end "apprentices are limited in number to limit 

 the supply of journeymen to the demand and thus prevent a large 

 number of men from learning the trade who can not get work." 

 (*118b.) In the words of another journeyman, "Why do we want 

 to train men to be carpenters and have them walk the streets?" 

 (118a.) 



The labor supply is also limited through examinations. The 

 '"Carpenter"' advises journeymen when work is ''dull" in any place. 

 Should journeymen go to Chicago disregarding such advice they are 

 compelled to submit to an examination before they can enter the 

 union. Fake examinations are put up when more men are not 

 wanted in the union. "If they pass the examination, we vote them 

 down in the union." (*118c.) 



It would be inferred from this interpretation that the carpenters 

 could and did limit the supj)ly of labor to the demand. That this 

 is not the case is evidenced by the fact that the carpenters are un- 

 employed from twenty to thirty per cent of the time in Chicago. 

 Several business agents told the writer the carpenters were unem- 

 ployed one-half of the time. (*18.) It is therefore doubtful if they 

 have the jiower to control the labor supply, and they certainly do 

 not exercise that power if they have it. 



The case of control of the working personnel is otherwise. In 

 this instance the control seems almost absolute. The journeymen 

 obey the business agents and officers of the union as a matter of 

 custom if not of judgment. One journeyman said, ••we obey the 

 business agent in order to enable the union to maintain the rules 

 and force the employer to comply with our demands." (*98.) 

 Another said, "all must obey or it would be open shop. It Avould 

 tend to break the ranks if we didn't act in unison." (*07.) This 

 control of the working personnel not only enables them to hold the 

 men together for their own sakes but also to carrv out the various 



